Touch-sensitive screens or touch screens are commonly used in a myriad of devices as a user interface, such as smartphones, personal digital assistants, tablet computers, kiosks, ATM terminals, point-of-sale terminals, and other computing devices. A touch screen enables the coupling of data entry with the display so that the user may enter data and make selections by directly touching displayed elements on the screen. The use of the touch screen is especially popular with mobile devices because of the elimination of the keyboard to yield more real estate to a larger display screen.
The entry of security data such as passwords and PIN data is often required to gain access to certain resources such as websites, financial accounts, shopping accounts, other protected data, or the use of the device itself. When a keypad is displayed on a touch screen to enter such security data, the user may unwittingly yield a fingerprint pattern or finger movement pattern that may be used to decode the security data by malicious criminals. Accordingly, a need arises for a solution to greatly minimize such unauthorized access to confidential and protected data and resources.